When I look at the number of IT people I know-really good people with great expertise-who put in a ton of hours for mediocre pay, I can't help but conclude that it's just not that easy to go out and negotiate more pay. My sense is that jobs like yours are few and far between.
I absolutely agree that it's all about supply and demand; there's a healthy supply of IT people willing to let themselves be screwed. I encounter them on a regular basis. If they quit, someone else will be willing to take their place. As for education... I scored in the 74th percentile on the GMAT, and my Master's classes start on the 25th. :) From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:13 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: So, Why Do We Do It? From: John Hornbuckle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, 18 August 2008 12:27 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: So, Why Do We Do It? I'm not so much concerned about the specific titles used as I am about sysadmins, as a group, being paid well for their expertise and time. Call me an administrator, call me an engineer, call me a geek-I don't care, so long as you don't ask me to work 60 hours a week for 40-hour pay. Well, if you want more pay, then go out and negotiate more pay. There are places that will pay for good staff - but proving that you are actually good can be the tricky part. If you don't want to work 60 hours, then don't, or find a new job. Salaries are, at the broadest extreme, determined by supply and demand. If you want to be able to demand better conditions or higher wages, then you're going to need to move yourself to a market niche where you skills/knowledge/experience command a premium. FWIW, I'm on a nice six figure package. But I have two degrees (inc a Masters in business), a bunch of current certs (3 x MCITP, MCSE+Security, MCBDA), track record at my company, Microsoft MVP, written a couple of books, spoken at plenty of tech.eds/conferences etc. I do this other stuff because I like helping people, but it also helps career-wise. People are much more likely to approach you to work on a large, enterprise, project for $1000/day or $2000/day *if* you have a reputation as one of the leaders in the field. There are too many crap people in IT - people who don't really understand what they're doing, and have no interest in doing so. They think they're going a good job technology wise, but really they deliver poor business outcomes (compared to what they could potentially deliver if they used technology better). I think that's one reason why a lot of smaller companies aren't willing to spend big dollars on IT salaries - too much risk of getting someone rubbish. But if you go to somewhere like a large bank or technology company - companies that depend on technology and understand how technology is vital to keeping their business running, then you can certainly earn a lot more. Cheers Ken ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
